Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
2002 International RERTR Meeting
RERTR ACTIVITIES IN ARGENTINA
P. Adelfang, L. Alvarez, E. Pasqualini
Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica
Departamento Combustibles Nucleares - CAC
Avda. Gral. Paz 1499, (1650) San Martín
Pcia. Buenos Aires - República Argentina
ABSTRACT
The Atomic Energy Commission of Argentina has been an active participant of the RERTR program since 1978. An important milestone of the Argentinean RERTR program was the development and manufacturing at industrial scale of U3O8 dispersed fuel and its subsequent application to the conversion of the RA-3 reactor core to LEU fuel.
More recently, our activities were focused on the development of U3Si2 fuel with a density of 4.8 gU/cm3 and the improvement of the manufacturing process of this type of fuel. The program to qualify CNEA as a supplier U3Si2 dispersed fuels is scheduled to finalize by mid 2003. To hasten this program the main research reactor of Argentina, the RA3, raised its power from 5 MW to 8 Mw in October this year. This is an intermediate step in the program to increase RA-3 power to 10 MW
Currently, one of the main objectives is to develop and qualify the technology for the production of high-density LEU fuel elements using U-Mo alloy. An original way to produce U-Mo powder (the HMD process) was developed and its being upgraded to plant scale production.
Another significant progress was the development of LEU targets for the production of 99Mo, in the form of miniplates prepared with dispersed LEU U-Alx.
The shipment to USA of 207 MTR spent fuels containing US origin highly enriched uranium, successfully carried out in the end of 2000, is another remarkable achievement of the Argentinean RERTR program. This activity was carried out in the framework of the United States Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel Acceptance Program. The fuels were fabricated in Argentina and used in the RA-3 reactor from 1968 to 1987. The inventory of the shipped HEU spent fuel consisted in 166 standard assemblies and 41 control assemblies.
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Contact:
Mr. Pablo Adelfang
Head, Nuclear Fuels Unit
CNEA-CAC
Avda. del Libertador 8250
C1429BNO Buenos Aires, Argentina
Phone (54 11) 6772 7034
Fax (54 11) 6772 7434
E-mail: [email protected]